Leave the Packaging Behind!

John has some great advice about reducing your mark on our planet.

By John Bergdoll
Chair of the Sustainability Committee (Green Team)
john@allcreativesolutions.com

Here's a new behavior pattern I have been embracing. After I make a purchase like toner cartridges at Staples, anything at Home Depot or similar places, I ask, "If I give you this box, will you recycle it?"
They say, "Of course."
I say, "Great."
Here's why I would do this change in behavior. I give the store the packaging at that moment because I'm told it will get recycled, I don't have to cart it to my recycling station which saves me time and money on gas adding to traffic congestion making our communities more pedestrian-friendly and it lessens my carbon footprint (CO2 pollution) by keeping one car off the road.
When enough people do this "Leave the Packaging Behind" behavior pattern, it encourages store owners to put more pressure on their retailers to lessen their packaging because stores don't want to spend their time and money being a storage facility for recycling. By reducing the packaging needs, you are helping preserve our diminishing resources like trees for paper and your saving the energy it takes to make the packaging and avoiding the transportation it takes to create unnecessary packaging that just gets thrown away.
Change happens from the ground up. It's simple, it's easy and it makes a difference. Try it and be part of the solution.